


Close Your Eyes

by Rirren



Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
Genre: Dark, Drugs, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Interrogation, Torture, febuwhump day 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 00:27:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29144454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rirren/pseuds/Rirren
Summary: After pain, release.
Relationships: Yassen Gregorovich & Alex Rider
Comments: 32
Kudos: 54
Collections: AR Febuwhump 2021, febuwhump 2021





	Close Your Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Hocchikisu and Cthulhu for helping out with the fic!

The interrogation had gone on for hours. It had started with questions, then threats, and then pain. Alex's exposed fingertips were still throbbing where Yassen had ripped his nails off. But it hadn't been enough for Yassen's employer, who had soon taken over.

"Please!" Alex cried out. His toes curled painfully in his trainers. "I don't know anything! Yassen, you know they don't tell me anything!"

Yassen's expression was immovable. Alex squeezed his eyes shut, a hiss escaping his lips that turned into a pained whine. His pulse thrummed in his ears and he focused on it, trying to turn his mind away from what was happening in the real world.

He could hear murmured conversation, but his brain couldn't parse the words. A few minutes of blessed relief passed before his arm was seized and he felt a pinch. Yassen was kneeling beside him holding a syringe, injecting some unknown substance into him. Alex jerked, trying, unsuccessfully, to get away.

"Ssh," murmured Yassen. "You don't want the tip to break off."

"No," Alex moaned, but Yassen had already pulled the syringe out of his arm. "What is that? What did you put in me?"

The other man—Darrel Richards, Yassen's employer and the man Alex had been sent to steal information from—smirked.

"Something to help you rest," he said, and a surge of hatred went through Alex.

"Fuck you!" he yelled, and he kept yelling as Yassen pulled him out of the room and down to the waiting cell.

He was already starting to feel strange as Yassen handcuffed him to a metal ring embedded in the concrete floor: there was a sense of unreality, a pricking in his skin like a warning. He grabbed Yassen before he left, the pressure of the grip sparking fresh pain in his hands.

"You don't need to do what he says. Yassen, you can let me go."

Yassen didn't even look mildly affected by Alex's plea. "Or you can just tell us what we need to know." Alex let his hand fall. "Why do you care about these people?"

Alex shook his head in despair, his body curling in on itself as he did. A moment later the heavy door swung shut, locking, and he groaned long and low. He tipped over onto his side. The ground felt unsteady beneath him, rolling like the sea. His heartbeat sped up, sweat prickling at his temples.

He had no idea what he had just been drugged with. He started humming to distract himself. The sound seemed to stretch out and echo. He stopped but he could still hear it, like there was someone calling back to him.

The room darkened, shadows gathering in the corners of his eyes. He glanced around, but the shadows just followed, things moving in the darkness there.

He tried to tell himself it was just the drugs, it wasn't real, but he could see it, he could _see_ it and it _felt_ real, as if all his senses and reactions had dialled up to eleven.

He clutched the metal ring in the ground, trying to anchor himself. He was trying to keep calm but his breath kept hitching, stuttered and shallow. The notes of his hummed song still echoed around him. Gradually he became aware of something behind him, rising up over his body—dark and cold.

There was someone in the room. He couldn't move, his body paralysed with fear. He shut his eyes, but he could still hear the humming, and it was getting louder.

It was right by his ear.

He screamed.

*

A nightmare engulfed him.

His panicked thoughts crashed into each other in his head, destroying his coherency. Things were scrabbling in the dirt with him, voices were whispering, hideous visions were rushing at him. Left alone he was swept away—a whirlpool whipping him up into higher and higher levels of fear.

He was crying, hunched over with his arms over his head when he felt a gentle touch to his shoulder. He kicked out, rolled over and caught a glimpse of blonde hair.

"Mum!" He reached out and grabbed the body in front of him. He trembled, face buried in a warm chest.

He clung on as he was lifted up and carried. Brightness stung his eyes, his mother pulled away, and then Yassen was there. The walls loomed up around him, stretching the figures of the people in here. Yassen's face distorted and moved unpleasantly, like oil slick on water.

Alex clung to the chair he was sitting on, shrinking back.

"Alex, you need to give us those codes."

Alex shook his head. Although he couldn't remember why they needed to remain a secret. "I can't."

"Give him here," muttered another voice.

Alex's hand was yanked forward and then the nail bed of his index finger was sliced open, pain striking up his nerves. He screamed, tried to pull away.

The man held on.

"Please—!"

Another slice and he yanked himself free, so hard that something popped and agony exploded. He cradled his hand to his chest, red flowers blossoming all over him. His hand throbbed like it was on fire.

"The codes!"

He glanced up. The man lifted the knife and he shrunk back.

"I will!" he sobbed. "Just stop, stop..."

His lungs felt like they were spasming, his words barely able to squeeze through. Somehow he managed to say the 14 words of the code phrase.

And it was over. He hunched over, tears dripping down his face, gasping for air.

Something pressed against his head, then softly, gently stroked through his hair. He opened his eyes, looking at the blurry world.

"Ssh." He heard Yassen's voice next to his ear. "You did very well, little Alex."

Something cold touched his temple.

"Close your eyes."


End file.
